Let us face it, the internet is a popularity contest. Some topics rise and are celebrated, while others fall to oblivion. This change in online presence reflects the interests of real people, but we tend to have a short attention span. Therefore, successful businesses need to know how to grab attention before anyone else does. The only way to do so is to master the popularity trends.
Luckily, we can follow popularity by knowing what people search for online. Google Trends API is a tool allowing us to achieve this. Access an enormous dataset of actual search requests made by users in the most popular search engine on the internet. With this tool, you can search for a specific topic or search terms in real-time or at needed periods.
What Is Google Trends Data?
To put it simply, Trends data is a sample of searches from Google. It can come in many forms, but not all of them are useful. Most of all, we have to avoid biased data and to ensure this, it is organized on three levels.
- Anonymization – no user is personally identifiable.
- Categorization – data prepared according to determining topics for a search request.
- Aggregation – data is put together in groups for easy use.
There is an enormous amount of searches on Google. So we are provided with a random sample that can be processed quickly. The number of searches is growing over time, and more populous areas have more search requests. So, to compare the data, it has to be normalized first.
Data normalization is a process of making data appear similar for every search query. Google Trends data is normalized in two steps. First, it’s divided according to geography and the time range it represents. Then, resulting numbers are scaled from 0 to 100, where 100 is a maximum interest proportionally.
Let’s take the search term “End of the world” as an example. It was entered most frequently in December 2012, so the value for this period is 100. It does not mean that the search term wasn’t entered at any other time. For example, October 2021 has a value of 5. These values allow us to get a unique perspective and compare data points in relative terms.
Use Cases For Businesses
We understand now what Google Trends data is, so let us talk about how to put it to use for your business. No product or service lives in a vacuum, so a successful business strategy has to align with relevant information to make use of it.
Market research is an effort to gather this information and many marketing specialists use Google Trends API to know their customer’s behaviour. Here are a few typical use cases:
- Defining keywords. Knowing what sparks customers’ interest while searching will allow you to formulate the right keywords.
- Predicting seasonality. Trends come and go in response to yearly events. Knowledge of seasonality will allow you to schedule your content and stay on top.
- Identifying geographical specifics. If you play on different markets worldwide, Google trends API will let you know who’s who in different locations.
- Performing sentiment analysis. For better or worse, there is always a number of topics associated with a brand. Make use of what search terms are linked with your products.
Even a few of the use cases, if implemented well, will lead to positive business growth. Safe to say that Google Trends API is a powerful tool to evaluate your website’s presence on the internet and implement successful strategies.
The More Data The Better
Data does not mean much if it’s inaccurate, and to achieve accuracy, it’s a must to have a lot of it. Google Trends has more than enough, but collecting it in large quantities can be a challenging task. That’s why extracting data from Google trends has to be supplemented by high-quality web scraping tools.
Simply put, web scraping automates the process of gathering freely accessible data from targeted websites. Instead of searching for data manually, a bot can request and download information in quantities unachievable by manual human labour.
Not all Web scrapers are made equal. Some may even hinder your progress, so you have to look for the best. A successful scraper must be reliable, provide well-structured data, and be easy to use and integrate. All this and more is achieved by SERPMaster.com. It makes Google Trends data gathering a walk in a park.
Conclusion
Google Trends data gives us insight into what’s popular right now. This knowledge is an invaluable asset for any business that wants to build a successful marketing strategy. It is most useful when collected on a large scale. With reliable web scraping tools, you will achieve this in no time. So gear up, and let’s get going!